The recent, widespread use of digital cameras has led to the common use of image editing software, and other related technologies and devices, to manage and manipulate digital images of 3D objects. One useful aspect of digital image devices and applications is to provide a user the ability to manage, retrieve, manipulate, and use images of 3D objects efficiently and effectively.
Use of 3D object images has been recognized as being useful in various applications such as multimedia, computer-aided design (CAD), robot vision, and medical imaging. For example, conventional 3D multimedia-based service applications may allow users to capture images of the 3D object and transmit the captured images to a remote server to search for information relating to the 3D object that is stored in a database on the server. These 3D applications require that the 3D object be described sufficiently for identifying the 3D object, in order to make possible the retrieval of information related to the 3D object.
In line with the increasing demands for 3D applications, extensive research on the construction of 3D objects has been conducted, resulting in accessibility to various modeling tools and greater number of collections of 3D objects. However, resulting inefficiencies arise as these conventional 3D object retrieval systems perform exhaustive searches of 3D objects in a database especially as the database grows extensively large.